


the blue spirit (and sokka’s giant stupid crush)

by the-bi-sokka-club (blametheone)



Series: the club hits 1k [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Ba Sing Se, Episode: s03e14-15 The Boiling Rock, Gay Panic, Identity Reveal, M/M, The Blue Spirit - Freeform, The Western Air Temple - Freeform, also brief violent themes, it's exactly what you think it is, much gay panic ensues, sokka is in love with the blue spirit, swearing warning, that's rough buddy, war ship conversations, zuko joins the team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:49:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25416442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blametheone/pseuds/the-bi-sokka-club
Summary: Sokka frowned, re-reading the poster with curiosity.It’s not until Sokka sees Zuko’s dao, half-unsheathed on the floor, that the lightbulb goes off above his head and a stupid little gasp sneaks out.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: the club hits 1k [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1840897
Comments: 40
Kudos: 1305





	the blue spirit (and sokka’s giant stupid crush)

**Author's Note:**

> requested by anonymous on tumblr!
> 
> tw swearing!

When Sokka first learned about the Blue Spirit, his immediate reaction was, “Hey, cool! Guys look there’s some vigilante in a really sick mask running around being mean to the Fire Nation!”

Aang had inspected the wanted poster and made a little gasp of excitement.

“Yeah, he broke me out of Zhao’s stronghold!”

“Really?” Sokka and Katara both questioned at the same time.

Aang had nodded, nothing much more to say on that matter despite Sokka and Katara’s insistent questions.

And from there, for Sokka, it was kind of a loud respect for the vigilante, until he met the elusive character in Ba Sing Se, from which point the ‘respect’ became a total infatuation. Sokka had always been attracted to people with power, and this masked gymnast with dual swords was ticking all of his boxes.

He (poorly) attempted to keep this little crush a secret from his friends, but they all knew. They didn’t know how deep his infatuation went, but even thought Sokka went to ‘all extents’ to hide his crush they somehow found out.

(Maybe it was the fact that he kept doodling the mask whenever he has access to ink and paper – or sticks and sand.)

But _then_ , Zuko joined the group, and Sokka finally has a chance to make friends with someone his age, and he’s determined at all times to make a good impression – half because he wants the Literal Prince of the Fire Nation to think he’s rad, but also because he’s still petty about all the attempted murder and wants Zuko to think Sokka is better than him.

At first, Zuko doesn’t notice anything about Sokka being a disaster romantic (or, Sokka can admit, a functional disaster in general), because there’s this big pressing issue with the fact that no one likes him. _But_ as soon as he was accepted into the group, Toph opened her mouth to torment everyone with ‘introducing themselves’.

They kept, loudly, trying to shut her up because there was never a need for introductions. Ever. No one should have to go around a circle and state a fact about themselves, and Toph knew that, and they knew that she knew that, and Toph was intent on making everyone want to curl up into a ball somewhere, so she introduced everyone to Zuko for them.

“Katara is bad at cooking but she’s the only one who knows how to cook so brace your stomach-”

(Katara was not present to throw soup on Toph’s head, mostly due to the fact that she wasn’t quite happy with Zuko enough to sit near him yet.)

“I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that Aang is a wimp.”

Zuko hides a snicker, only allowing himself to grin at all because Aang’s pout is fake.

“Oh, and _Sokka_ ,” Toph snickers. “Keeps getting paranoid about being attacked-”

“He licked a cave wall that one time,” Aang pipes in.

“Alright,” Sokka holds up his hands. “Can we not-”

“Oh! And he shouldn’t be allowed to name _anything_ ,” Aang giggled, and Zuko was smirking, and Sokka looked like he was ready to throw them both off the edge of the temple.

“Oh!” Toph exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “And he’s got a big stupid crush on the Blue Spirit!”

They both fell on their backs in laughter, but Zuko’s face dropped and his back stiffened.

“I do not!” Sokka protested.

“Ha _ha_ , that’s right, he thinks we don’t know about it,” Aang pointed, eyes squeezed shut and still giggling to himself on the ground.

While the kids rolled around laughing at Sokka’s expense, Zuko desperately tried to pull his soul back into his body from whatever realm it had just been kicked to, but the only thing going through his dumb gay brain was, _‘cute boy, blue spirit, blue spirit me, cute boy, blue spirit, fuck!_ ’

And it wasn’t a particularly helpful loop to be stuck in.

“I don’t have a crush, I just think they’re cool!” Sokka crossed his arms, shoulders hunched and chin titled away from the little gremlins to hide his face.

“Wait, wait, here it comes-” Toph barely scrambled her words together just in time for Sokka to casually mention,

“ _You know I met them once_ -” in unison with Aang and Toph, both mocking him and immediately losing their composure afterwards. They pointed at each other and mumbled intangible words through their laughter.

Zuko still hadn’t quite returned to this plane of existence.

“You guys suck,” Sokka rolled his eyes, clearly giving up his fight and letting the shame take him.

Aang caught Zuko’s eye and winked.

Sokka determined he was not, absolutely _not_ going to allow it to ever be brought up again, (Zuko also determined to not let the Blue Spirit ever be brought up again), except that then he was in an airship sailing through the clouds with Zuko, and the best conversation they had been able to come up with so far consisted of how fluffy the clouds were, and dead girlfriends.

(Dead? Zuko wasn’t quite sure if what Sokka said was literal, a metaphor, or if he was in denial about his ex-girlfriend’s death, but either way he didn’t think it was an appropriate conversation to have with someone you had barely met.)

“So, you met the Blue Spirit?” it slipped out of his dumb gay mouth before he could stop himself and maybe Zuko was beating himself up internally for saying it, but he was very curious to listen to what Sokka had to say.

(It wasn’t until Zuko arrived at the Western Air Temple that he realised… Sokka kinda _cute_.

Maybe it was because of the way Sokka was holding himself, standing as a solid force between Zuko and the friends he protected, maybe it was his hair and the way his eyes stood out in the shadows of the temple, or maybe it was just that Sokka was the first boy his age he’d ever met that wasn’t a total prick and the gay was jumping out of him?

In any case, Zuko’s first priority was convincing Aang and his friends that he wasn’t a threat. Thoughts about Sokka and/or any potential feelings for Sokka could wait until there wasn’t a very real threat of Katara drowning him.)

(‘Potential’ was really a buffer word at this point.)

“Yeah,” Sokka shrugged. “Have you?”

“I, uh,” Zuko hoped desperately it wasn’t noticeable how profusely he was sweating, “I’ve really only seen the posters. I don’t know anything more about him than that…”

Sokka nodded, clearly done with the conversation, and Zuko had to stop himself before he made a whiny noise or something equally ridiculous.

“Do you really have a crush on him?”

It took _everything_ in Zuko’s body to not trip over any of those words.

Sokka shrugged.

“I don’t know,” he frowned, kicking the floor beneath him. “I don’t- you’re just going to make fun of me.”

“I’m not,” Zuko promised. And he meant it.

Sokka contemplated his words for a moment, looking over the side of the basket.

“Maybe?” he admitted, finally. “When I met them in Ba Sing Se, it… it was kind of cool, to be protected instead of targeted, for once.”

“Oh,” the noise came out of Zuko’s mouth before he could stop it, “I’m-”

“No,” Sokka cut in immediately, face apologetic, “Not you. Well, not you specifically. I mean, every single time we ever stopped somewhere, there was someone out to get us. Every time. I mean, Aang went to jail, there was the whole thing with Zhao, we got chased out of the Fire Days Festival, Ba Sing Se is just a _shitshow_ -”

Sokka noticed Zuko smiling and latched onto the chance to deflect.

“Aw, you’re cute when you’re not scowling,” he mocked, a little worried at how quickly Zuko’s smile fell. Zuko appeared to be… distant?

Zuko, after a brief second, appeared to remember to be present in his body as a human being, and encouraged Sokka to continue.

“It was when we were in Ba Sing Se…” Sokak shrugged. “I wanted to go and eat some food, so I was wandering around the streets. I was beautiful, really, and then-”

Zuko remembered it perfectly.

_When Sokka had come by, he was already perched on the rooftop, at the time he had been searching for Jet if a little half-heartedly._

_Zuko recognised him as one of the Avatar’s friends. The boy’s face was hard to forget, and amongst a crowd of pale-faced Earth Kingdom nobility, his darker complexion, tall build, and patchy home-done shaved hair stuck out like a sore thumb._

_He didn’t seem to notice, or at least didn’t care. Other street-walkers cast a glance for the Water Tribe boy in their midst but he just kept walking._

_Zuko was meant to be looking for Jet, but this guy had caught his attention._

_He had wondered distantly, for a while, if he was going to see the Avatar while they were here. He had spent three years searching for Aang but after the first time they met it appeared that destiny continued to cross their paths without him even trying. He had given up the search, but was curious to see if destiny brought them here._

_And of course it had._

_And of course they were staying in the Upper Ring._

_Of course Zuko, an actual prince, was stuck in an apartment that was falling apart with his snoring uncle, having to serve tea to people born several rungs lower than them in the ladder of social hierarchy, just to make ends meet._

_And this scruffy kid from an igloo was wandering the streets of Ba Sing Se’s Upper Ring for a snack._

_Zuko decided to follow him, and he wasn’t even hungry but out of principal he decided to steal whatever the boy bought._

_Until-_

_“Alright kid, hand it over,” a man grabbed the Water Tribe boy’s arms, pinning them behind his back and pulling him off into a side alley so quickly that Zuko almost missed it – and everyone else seemed to have missed it entirely._

_The man was whispering into the boy’s ear, but by a struck of dumb luck he had lured the boy into the alley directly underneath where Zuko was perched._

_A wave of envy washed over him for a moment, that this slimy mugger might be the one to take out one of the Avatar’s friends when Zuko – who had trained in firebending, espionage, and duel-wielding swords for a good portion of his life – hadn’t._

_Also, Zuko had dibs on taking this kid down. Non-verbal dibs, but dibs nonetheless._

_“Hand what over?” the boy played dumb, trying to wriggle free of the mugger’s grip._

_Zuko rolled his eyes behind the mask._

_“Your fucking cash,” the mugger spat. “All of it. Now.”_

_“You know,” the boy continued struggling. “I think you’ll find that you’ve gotten yourself into a pretty sticky situation, here.”_

_“Oh, have I?”_

_“Yeah,” Zuko dropped silently behind the mugger, slipping his swords against the man’s throat as quickly as possible, “You have.”_

_The man startled, losing his grip on the Water Tribe boy and instinctively reaching up to grab at Zuko, but this wasn’t the prince’s first rodeo, and he tightened the hold that his swords had on the man’s neck. It no doubt terrified him, and the man’s hands wavered in the air._

_“Ah,” he tutted, deciding that tonight could be one of those rare nights where he spoke with the mask on, in contrast to his usual silence. “What do we say when we do something wrong?”_

_“E-excuse me?”_

_Zuko pressed the sharp edge of the blade into the soft skin of the guys throat, noticing belatedly that his stance was weak now that he had been frightened._

_“Didn’t your mother ever teach you to be polite?” Zuko leaned in close, sneering behind the mask. “What do we say when we do something wrong?’_

_“I- uh…” the mugger cast his eyes towards the Water Tribe boy, who was still standing there, watching. “I’m sorry!”_

_“And this won’t happen again, will it?” Zuko asked, gently sliding one of the swords. There wasn’t enough pressure to cut him, but the sound of swords scraping together that close to your jugular was enough to make people wet themselves, and Zuko knew that for a fact._

_“N-no! No sir!” the mugger shook his head slightly._

_Zuko drew back the swords and pushed the mugger forward, the Water Tribe boy easily side stepping as the man fell face-first onto the cobblestone. The mugger ran, taking off down the street like water down a pipe._

_The boy was still standing there, almost in awe and most definitely in shock._

_“You know I had him,” he eventually spoke, crossing his arms._

_Zuko rolled his eyes behind his mask and sheathed his swords._

_“Sure you did.”_

_The boy had a small smirk on his face, not even insulted, and in a flash his hand was out before Zuko, palm open._

_“Sokka,” he introduced himself, and Zuko faltered for a moment._

_He didn’t know their names, the kids travelling with the Avatar. He knew the Avatar’s name was Aang, that whiny Water Tribe girl had yelled it enough, but he was stuck on everyone else’s._

_Maybe he wasn’t as good at espionage as he thought._

_Zuko cautiously took Sokka’s hand and shook it._

_“Nice to meet you, Sokka.”_

“And then…” Sokka shrugged, “I turned away for a second, and I turned back to offer them to join me to get some food, but they were gone.”

Zuko nodded. It had been a _bitch_ to silently clamber back onto the roof in that split second Sokka had looked away, but he was absolutely not going to wait around until the kid asked his name, or spirits forbid, waited and watched him inelegantly shuffle back up onto the roof after fumbling through an awkward goodbye.

“I don’t know, I just think they’re really cool,” Sokka fiddled with his thumbs. “And that whole disappearing-before-I-turned-around thing was pretty cool, too.”

Zuko frowned to himself. Sokka wasn’t telling the rest of the story.

The part where two nights later Sokka got separated from the rest of the group when he was distracted by some lanterns, and Zuko should have hidden – easily could have hidden – but for some reason he didn’t.

_Sokka spotted the mask and ducked into the alley Zuko was standing in. He had to give the kid credit, he could actually be very sneaky when he wanted to._

_“What are we friends, now?” Sokka joked._

_Zuko would never, ever be able to say why he did what he did next, not even if you offered him a thousand gold coins or threatened his life. He didn’t know why he did it. Maybe it was the mask, shielding him from all of the possible bad outcomes, allowing him to live a secret life that didn’t follow him by day._

_Iroh would probably just blame his lack of impulse control, but that’s okay, because Iroh would never know about this._

_Because what Zuko did next was grab Sokka’s wrists and pull him closer, chest to chest._

_He didn’t even like Sokka, not like that, not even at all._

_But Sokka made a sly quip that if he was going to be ‘manhandled’ he should at least get to see who is holding him, and Zuko’s brain stopped working._

_He didn’t lift the mask off, technically, just shifted it upwards. His nose was covered still, but everything below it was exposed._

_“Sokka!” Aang’s voice was audible from the street, calling out to his lost friend._

_At the sound of it Sokka’s eyes went wide, and before Zuko could make a single movement, Sokka had kissed him, grinned, and run off into the street with a discreet little wave._

_Aang was there._

_He was right._

_There._

_But Zuko pushed the mask back over his face, and ran as fast as he could back home._

Zuko could guess why Sokka wasn’t telling that part, but there was a part of him that was disappointed he didn’t get to hear it from Sokka’s point of view.

Why had he kissed him? Why was he so willing to let a stranger pull him into an alleyway?

Why would he let someone who was so clearly not at all feminine pull him in close, and why did he kiss him if he knew this?

Maybe that was at least one thing he could ask.

“Uh, but-” Zuko swallowed. “Um, sometimes, in Ba Sing Se, people talked about their experience meeting the Blue Spirit? I’m pretty sure he’s… a guy… if that… changes anything? About, you know, having a crush on him?”

Sokka barely took register of the question, apparently not picking up on the importance Zuko was applying to it.

He shrugged and shook his head, and Zuko took a moment to internally scream.

The penny didn’t drop until they got back from the Boiling Rock, when Zuko decided to take a bath at the temple to ‘wash off the prison’ – whatever that meant – and Katara asked for paper.

And Sokka said, “I think Zuko has some in his bag?” and wandered off to go and get it.

Sokka stepped cautiously into Zuko’s room, feeling out of place, trespassing. When they first decided which room Zuko would stay in, it had been strategic and cautious. He was as far away as possible, but the route to his room was within easy reach of Toph’s seismic sense from all points of the temple.

Now, after trusting Zuko with his life, and having Zuko trust Sokka with his, it felt rude for him to still be pushed away like this.

Sokka glanced around the room cautiously, observing its cold emptiness. There weren’t even any clothes tossed around, no belongings strung across the room. It was like he hadn’t moved anything since he set his bag down. The only thing was that Zuko’s swords were unsheathed, dropped down next to the bag.

Sokka opened Zuko’s bag to search for the paper – reminding himself to apologise later for going through the prince’s belongings – and folded up neatly, tucked down the inside of the bag to keep it preserved, is the paper he was looking for.

Except when he pulls the paper out, it’s not blank, it’s a wanted poster. A wanted poster for the Blue Spirit.

Sokka frowned, re-reading the poster with curiosity.

Zuko said he didn’t know anything about the Blue Spirit, but he has the wanted poster. A narcissistic part of Sokka thinks maybe Zuko wanted to learn more after their conversation, and maybe he contemplates Zuko having a crush on Sokka and wanting to learn more about his interests.

The flaw with this plan – and Sokka doesn’t let his dumb brain start scrambling down the list of reasons Zuko didn’t have a crush on him because today was not the day for that spiral – was that they haven’t gone past anywhere he could possibly get a wanted poster since Zuko met them.

It’s not until Sokka sees Zuko’s dao, half-unsheathed on the floor, that the lightbulb goes off above his head and a stupid little gasp sneaks out.

Katara calls out to her brother, curious why paper was taking so long, and Sokka numbly stood, neurons firing so fast the nearly knocked his head around.

Dinner came and went before it became abundantly clear to Sokka that he absolutely could not continue pretending that nothing had changed.

To be fair, he gave it a really good shot.

Four hours was about Sokka’s maximum timeframe for hiding his feelings.

“Hey, Zuko?” Sokka knocks quietly on the door. When he opens it, Zuko is sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room, meditating in front of candles.

Zuko briefly opened his eyes to glance up at Sokka, and made a small face that almost looked like a smile before he closed his eyes again. It was an invitation to sit, Sokka’s pretty sure, and if it wasn’t that was Zuko’s problem for being ambiguous.

Sokka gently closed the door behind him and sat next to Zuko on the floor.

“Uh…” he pulled the folded paper from his pocket. “Care to explain?”

Zuko opened his eyes again and the second he saw the wanted poster the candles in front of them flared suddenly then immediately extinguished to nothingness.

Sokka blinked to let his eyes adjust to the darkness of the room, smoke from the burnt wicks wafting in between them.

He couldn’t see Zuko’s face but that almost made it easier.

“That was a little rude of you, to let me tell that whole story on the air ship and not say anything,” Sokka scooted closer.

Zuko appeared to still be frozen in place, and Sokka took it as an opportunity to take the reins.

“I don’t…” he contemplated his words. “I don’t care, Zuko. And, if you want, we don’t have to ever talk about this again. I just thought I’d let you know that I figured it out, so you don’t have to, like, keep it a secret, or whatever…”

Sokka startled when he felt a warm weight settle over his hand, not quite realising what it was until Zuko interlocked their fingers.

One day, Sokka is determined, he is going to kiss Zuko when he can actually _see_ his face.

But for now, this will do.

* * *

Alternate ending:

**Sokka, tired and upset one night, feeling unlucky in love:** I managed to kiss the Blue Fucking Spirit in Ba Sing Se but I can’t get a girlfriend??

 **Aang, who knows exactly who the Blue Spirit is and also knows that Zuko is exactly two rooms down the hall:** UH

* * *

Other alternate ending:

“Blue Spirit! Scourge of the Fire Nation!” Toph giggled, mocking the play. “Man, I’d love to know if the Blue Spirit has also watched the play, he was probably the most accurately portrayed, haha!”

“He _was_ watching,” Aang rolled his eyes, then realised what he had said when literally all eyes turned on him.

“I mean, uh…” he gulped. “I’m mad at Katara, I didn’t say anything! You all have hearing problems.”

And while the rest of the group start hounding Aang for information, Zuko winks at Sokka and Sokka nearly faints.


End file.
